Laser-Induced Transition between Nonlinear and Linear Resonant Behaviors of a Micromechanical Oscillator

Transforming the dynamical behavior of a nonlinear mechanical oscillator is promising for applications as diverse as high-bandwidth resonators, tunable frequency references, and filters. The authors present a method, based on three-dimensional femtosecond laser-matter interaction, to locally alter the dynamics of a glass micromechanical resonator. They not only continuously tune the resonator's response from nonlinear to linear, but also switch the ``stiffness'' of its nonlinear dynamics from ``hard'' to ``soft''.